The issue arose because the school district’s consultants apparently never considered zoning in their school site selection process. After convincing the school board to purchase both sites, they ran into the issue when county planning staff realized the ordinance didn’t allow for public/semi-public use in FAM districts.
For county planning staff, Hayden’s determination may have seemed an easy way to solve a problem quickly and quietly, without the uncertainty of taking such an issue through the usual, public process for amending the ordinance. County officials were worried that seeking a change in the FAM district would generate significant opposition, both from the public as well as township officials, many of whom don’t take changes to the ordinance lying down.
Instead of the no-fuss result county planners may have anticipated, they are finding that a decision that they intended to handle in-house, with no public notice of any kind, has become the focal point of attention, both from opponents of the school district’s restructuring plan, as well as from township representatives who don’t like to see their rights taken away by administrative fiat.
